I’ve been monogamously knitting on my WestKnits shawl in hopes of finishing before the TFA KAL deadline (end of the month). Was really worried that I might not make it for awhile there… But I managed to power through the challenging middle sections thanks in no small part to encouragement from Jane. But now I’m on section 5 and not worried about it or section 6. (And trying not to think too hard about the i-cord finish!)
Last week I decided I wanted to join in on some KAL fun (#westknitskal and #tfashawls2014) so I cast on a twofer, drawing from stash. Here’s my start on Vertices Unite by Stephen West, using a combination of DK and fingering weight TFA yarn.
Section A, which I’m only about 1/3 done with, combines Iris and Canyon in alternating rows. I added the next two colors that will be up, Lucky Penny and Stone, in the background to help spur me along. So far it’s an easy knit but there are some challenging — or at least new to me — sections coming up. Looking forward to seeing if I can pull them off!
Between the long weekend and this easy-going swath of stockinette, I’m losing track of time…
Just under the Wednesday wire, here is this week’s WIP. I am sailing happily along and reached the bottom stripe last night. My poor socks haven’t left their project bags even once this week. Not much else to say except I’m really loving these yarn colors — together and apart.
Now that I’ve been knitting mostly with fingering weight yarn, I’ve found that I don’t have enough stitch markers — well, pretty stitch markers. Besides the lovely set Jane gave me, the only small ones I have are plastic. (Yes, #firstworldproblems.)
I was browsing the jewelry supply aisle at Jo-Ann’s a few weeks back (looking for some replacement wires to fix a few pairs of earrings) when I, excuse the pun, found these lovely silver findings. They’re the perfect size for needles up to at least a US 8 and since they’re completely closed, there’s nothing that snags. Best of all, I got more than 30 of them for under $5.
Normally, I’m not a fan of pooling. In fact, I started my Vintage Office Socks three times before I found a combination of stitches/inch and needle size that gave me irregular stripes. This time, though, I’m digging the way the pooling curls around these socks in combination with the pattern’s curvy vertical lines.
Where do you stand on the pooling continuum — love or hate?
Wassily Kandinsky has long been my favorite painter. (In fact, I used to have a cat named after him.)
So when I saw that the Art Walk series had created a colorway based on his Composition Storm, I just had to have a skein. Yarn that special deserved a special pattern. No plain vanilla socks, here. I settled on this lacy pattern by Tanis Lavallee.
I’ve gotten over the hurdle of wearing my hand-knit socks. That said, these cashmere lovelies might just hide out in my sock drawer for a few more months…
I bought a lovely set of vintage buttons at Yarnover 2013 with no planned project but just because I loved them. Now I finally know what they want to grow up to be: an Ombre Cardigan. This weekend I wound the 4,000 yards of lace weight yarn (yes, you read that right) and created my swatch. Good news, though, is that the yarn is held double. Love how the TFA Aurora and Lucky Penny are combining…
I’m continuing to dip my toes in the sewing waters…
I used my biggest leftover from my quilted pillow to make a sock knitting project bag, modeled after one Izzy gave me a few years ago. Free-formed it — and not surprisingly learned a few things from my mistakes (none of them big enough to warrant a re-do).
I also used this great tutorial from the Very Berry Handmade blog to create a pincushion with some of my smaller scraps. My piecing is far from perfect, but I’m in love with it in every way.
Think this gem of a pattern book has been out for several months now, but I just discovered it today. Since I want to knit at least half of the patterns (3/6, see below), “buy individual patterns or book” question has been answered. But I need your help deciding:
- Book or eBook?
- Which pattern to cast on first — Neck Kraken, Bigfoot + Yeti, or Sea Serpent Squish?
Please “cast your votes” in the comments!
yarnandyarns.com 